The Armory Show 2024
September 6 – September 8, 2024
Omar Barquet, el, from the Syllables series, 2022. Mixed media collage, wood and oyster shell fragments, silver and gold pin, metallic paper, peacock feather, enamel and ink on printed paper, custom artist frame, 17 x 14 1/4 inches.
Omar Barquet, en, from the Syllables series, 2024. Mixed media collage, fragments of wood and seashells, synthetic hair, nails, silver and gold pins, enamel and ink on printed paper mounted on wooden panel and custom artist frame, 17 x 14 inches.
Omar Barquet, to, from the Syllables series, 2022. Mixed media collage, wooden fragments, seashell, silver and golden pin, enamel and ink on printed paper, custom artist frame, 17 x 14 1/4 inches.
Omar Barquet, u, from the Syllables series, 2022. Mixed media collage, wood and oyster shell fragments, peacock feather, silver and gold pin, colored pencil, enamel and ink on printed paper, custom artist frame, 17 x 14 1/4 inches.
Omar Barquet, Su (Syllables/Masks), 2016-2021. Digital print, enamel and wood fragments on panel with custom artist's frame, 37 x 37 x 3.5 inches.
Omar Barquet, 1st Oracle (Hands Descending), 2024. Mixed media collage, lacquer oil paint, nails, wood fragments, pearl, seashells and synthetic hair on wood boards on custom artist’s frame with museum glass, 16 7/8 x 14 x 2 inches.
Omar Barquet, 1st Vision (The Maelstrom) (after Z. T. Vizcaíno), 2024. Mixed media collage, lacquer oil paint, nails, wood fragments, pearl, seashells and synthetic hair on wood boards on custom artist’s frame with museum glass, 22 13/16 x 15 x 2 inches.
Omar Barquet, 5th Vision (The Eye Storm), 2024. Mixed media collage, lacquer oil paint, nails, wood fragments and synthetic hair on wood boards on custom artist’s frame with museum glass, 22 13/16 x 15 x 2 inches.
Omar Barquet, Waisenpsalmen III, 2023. Assemblage, book cover, wood, lacquer oil paint, digital print on paper, synthetic hair, seashell, nail, pearl, artist's frame Lightbox, 14 x 17 x 2 inches.
Omar Barquet, 2nd Alchemist, 2022. Digital print on enameled and tempered glass, manually ceramic necklace, coral stone, embroidery on fabric, fragments of carved, sandblasted and enameled wood and tree branch and iron supports, 59 x 39 2/5 inches.
Omar Barquet, Licofron (The Dark One), 2018-2020. Mixed media collage on printed archival paper with custom artist's frame, 71 x 54 1/2 inches.
Omar Barquet, Monotone (After Y. Klein), 2014. Mixed media collage on printed archival paper with custom artist's frame, 75 3/5 x 48 4/5 inches.
Omar Barquet’s widely varied, multidisciplinary practice encompasses collage, printmaking, photography, painting, sculpture, installation, sound, and performance. His work is deeply influenced by the rich cultural and historical heritage of his native Mexico, particularly its pre-Columbian civilizations, offering a profound exploration of the connection between past and present, nature and architecture, and the spiritual and material worlds. Barquet understands history as non-linear cycles of creation and destruction, which is reflected in his practice of collecting and recycling found objects; driftwood, sea shells, and flotsam washed up on the beach often feature in his work - materials with time etched into them. Accordingly, he favors the practices of collage and assemblage; multiple meanings coexist as fragmentary images and materials are repurposed and juxtaposed in compositions that call for close and extended contemplation.
Barquet describes his artworks as a kind of alchemy, “they generate a connection between image, language, memory, materiality and time that ends in a layered conjunction of discordant fragments transforming each other into a poetic, abstract experience…” His ongoing Alchemist series foregrounds this mercurial aspect of his work as he combines abstract geometric forms with organic textures, so that the compositions appear to be in a state of flux - one material morphing into another. These large scale, multimedia wall sculptures layer digitally printed glass sections, photographs, fragments of works on paper, and found objects. The series reflects Barquet’s interest in the generative relationship between seemingly disparate materials - a necklace, tree branch, and a photograph showing a fragment of an ancient Greek bust - speaking to the mystical power of art to act as a catalyst for transformation.
Barquet also draws from the worlds of poetry and music in his approach to abstraction. In the series Syllables, comprising framed mixed media collages on wood panels, Barquet’s densely layered visual language is in full force; wood surfaces are partially covered with archival images of incomplete or fragmented Buddhist and Greek sculptures, which are overlaid with small found objects and large black letters. The letters are taken from the syllables in the Mexican poet Francisco Hernández’s poem Cinco Melismas para Gunther Gerzso. The series invites viewers to piece together their own meanings, reflecting on the unstable nature of memory and the human experience.
Born 1979 in Chetumal, México, Omar Barquet received his BFA from La Esmeralda, the National School of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking in Mexico City, where he currently lives and works. Barquet has received numerous awards including the Young Artists Fellowship in painting and printmaking from FONCA (Fondo Nacional para las Cultura y las Artes), Mexico; Museo de arte Carillo Gil, Mexico; and has taken part in artist residencies including Capacete, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Casa Tomada, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Tupac, Lima, Perú; Vestfossen, Norway; Kiosko, Bolivia. He was selected for the XV and XVI Tamayo Biennial, and is in permanent collections including The Jumex Collection, Mexico City; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Mexico; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota; Museo de Arte de Sonora, Mexico; and Phoenix Museum of Art, Arizona among others.